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Semipalmated Sandpiper
Calidris pusilla
Audubon Illustration
John James Audubon, Birds of America (1827-1838). Public domain.
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About the Semipalmated Sandpiper
The semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla) is a very small shorebird. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific pusilla is Latin for "very small". Within the genus Calidris, the semipalmated sandpiper is most closely related to the western sandpiper (Calidris mauri). It was formerly sometimes separated with some other stints in either Ereunetes or Erolia, but these placements would leave the rest of Calidris a paraphyletic group.
Source: Wikipedia
Classification
- Scientific name
- Calidris pusilla
- Family
- Sandpipers and Allies
- Order
- Charadriiformes
Similar species
Other members of the sandpipers and allies family recorded in North America — a useful place to start if you are not certain of your identification.
- American Woodcock Scolopax minor
- Baird's Sandpiper Calidris bairdii
- Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
- Black Turnstone Arenaria melanocephala
- Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa
- Bristle-thighed Curlew Numenius tahitiensis
- Broad-billed Sandpiper Calidris falcinellus
- Buff-breasted Sandpiper Calidris subruficollis
- Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia
- Common Redshank Tringa totanus
- Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos
- Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago
Know when the Semipalmated Sandpiper turns up near you
How rare bird alerts work →Gear for spotting Semipalmated Sandpiper
Optics
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Cameras
Cameras for Bird Photography
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